Highlights: Drums

this has to be one of the best all around cheese shows ever of all time. classic!!!!! what a moment in time. this is desert island cheese, the only show you REALLY need.

Yeah Happy, here you on that! The storm made this show. Often when people ask me to think of the best-feeling time in my life, looking at the sky with the light rain falling on all the happy dancers and colorful vibes dancing around beautiful Steamboat and the feel-good music of this home-grown band, comes to mind. And, I wish I could somehow translate such a feeling into words, but as we know we can't do that, I thank the taper for this amazing show, and just tell them to listen. Favorite SCI show I've ever seen.

I was not at this show, but this show is probably the first live SCI show I ever had and it's what really got me into them. Just great music from beginning to end. A MUST download for any SCI fan new or old. I will definitely miss them. Hopefully they'll come back though.

I just want to second that, a great show! Thought I'd throw in a show memory.

Sometime in the middle of the show, this awesome thunderstorm rolled through the valley that Steamboat overlooks. It gave us a very light sprinkle and a nice rainbow! After it moved through, the sun set and the humidity from the storm just lit the sky up with some beautiful colors. Talk about some great fireworks for the 4th!

This is a good sounding show, the source info. is self explanatory.

Starting things out really acoustic, Keith on upright bass. They should have kept playing Big Scotia a lot after 1999, it's not as good here as it is then, but it does have energy. Frankly I would have preferred a little more acoustic than just 3 songs (see 8/12/01); maybe an original? But some is better than none.

Typical Kyle opening to BOTWP, cool though. Just after 2 minutes he does something cool and different. Billy on vocals. Billy on awesome guitar after verse one. This will prove true throughout the show. Break it down at 7:30. Epic by 10:20. This is a good BOTWP except they mess up a bit going back into the last verse, or on the verge of screwing up and cover it up decently.

Uh oh a 2001 Little Hands has begun. This one always comes to mind when I recall the best versions of the song, but never ahead of 10/26/00, 10/29/00, 11/12/01, 4/23/99, maybe 4/27/01, and a few others. Travis adds some poignancy to the end of the first chorus. Kang flubs the lyrics to the last verse. Good keys, really good Billy (again, throughout the show). Wow really cool Billy. This one BUILDS into the fiddle solo. Nice fiddle, especially around 10:30 onward.

Out comes most of the Charlie Hunter Band (sans Hunter) for a great MLT. Percussion abounds and the sax works well. In comes the storm. "Holy moly it's getting rowdy out here" -Billy. They play one of the better Tom Thumb's Blues out there, not that there's much variation between them. If they really were supposed to play climb that would have made up for the short acoustic stuff, but overall at least they got Tom Thumb's in.

This Shakin' the Tree is up there too, just behind 11/17/00 and 11/4/00 (and maybe the Horning's 2001 one because of that crazy jam at the end of the song). Pretty dull Howard. But yes SOTOTW, why didn't they play it in their acoustic set? I always like Let it Go, and if Kyle's playing it for his girlfriend on their third anniversary then it is nice and emotional.

Once I heard the first notes of Rivertrance I expected a Star Spangled Banner or something else patriotic in the middle. Shockingly cool Billy. This Rivertrance is no 8/1/01, the Rivertrance by which all other Rivertrances seem to be judged, but since it is in the same period it is still not bad. Keith is actually pretty cool in it.

The This Must Be the Place is Good, especially the segue into Outside Inside, but I want to get to the Outside Inside. This is the best Outside Inside. Billy alone makes it that way, you can tell during his section when he makes the whole band say "Yea." I've not heard him play like that before, and the rest of the song has no mistakes whatsoever.

Nice, fat encore. The storm is gone. This Shine has Kyle playing the post-keys-section Kang notes during the drums, which is cool. Also does it more blatantly in 10/11/03. Shine is incomplete, which is a shame, but the I Know You Rider is really cool, more reggaeish than usual in spots. I thought I remembered hearing a Star Spangled tease during one of these two songs but I can't find it now.

I'm giving this 4 stars despite the Shakin' the Tree, Little Hands, and Outside Inside just because the 1st set needed that Climb or some extra song and the acoustic "set" was a tease. I also needed a complete Shine. 5 stars only goes to the cream, still recommend this show as you can tell.

Newcomers to SCI are recommended to download this incident -- the sound is great and the version of Rivertrance here is the best I've heard.
SCI are Traffic on steroids!

July 4th cheese was not a letdown. The first night wasnt what was hoped, but ok since the 2 shows at red rocks the night before were wild and crazy. The acoustic intro was perfect and the BOTWP, MLT, Tom Thumbs are all great versions. If it wasnt for the storm that litterally came in on top of us, the setlist had a climb to end the set, but unfortunetly they cut it short. Set 2 was started with a great version of Shakin the tree followed by a rockin howard and into sittin, which was kind of out of the blue. The Rivertrance was funky and Keith was finally laying down some phat riffs. The encore was long and the i know you rider was slowed down to a reggae/funk jam...pretty sweet...oh yeah, these disks sound great